Is the Son the express image of God or is God the express image of the Son?

The Trinity dogma says that there are three Persons in the Godhead.

The formula word 'person' translated in English was the Greek word 'hypostasis'.

The word (hypostasis) comes from two other Greek words:

1. (hypo) which means by or under
2. (histemi) which means to stand, to make firm, to set, to establish, to sustain, to fix, to uphold, to hold up, to make a foundation, or to keep intact.

So, means underlying reality or underlying nature, that which supports (establishes, sustains, fixes, keeps intact, makes firm, stands, sets, etc.) from underneath.

The word (hypostasis) occurs five times in the original Greek of the New Testament:

1. 2Cor 9:4
2. 2Cor 11:17
3. Heb 1:3
4. Heb 3:14
5. Heb 11:1

All but one of these uses (hypostasis) to refer to something that is the confidence of a hope or belief, not referring in any way to the nature of the Godhead.

1. 2Cor 9:4
2. 2Cor 11:17
3. Heb 1:3
4. Heb 3:14
5. Heb 11:1

The one verse that uses (hypostasis) in reference to the Godhead contradicts its use in the Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.) and the Council of Constantinople (381 A.D.) to formulate the dogma of the Trinity.

Heb 1:3 says that the Son is the express image of God's person—the (character) of His (underlying nature).

Under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, the writer of the book of Hebrews says God has only one person. This makes sense, historically speaking, because he was writing to Jewish believers who held a strict monotheistic view of the Godhead.

Lets look at Heb 1:3 in the context in which it was written. So we can plainly see the meaning, the pronouns are replaced with the nouns to which they refer.)

Hebrews 1

1 God [the Subject of these sentences], God at many times and by different ways spoke in former times to the fathers by the prophets,

2 [God] Has in these last days spoken to us by God's Son, Whom God has appointed heir of all things, by the Son also God made the worlds;

3 The Son being the brightness of God's glory, and the express image of God's person, and upholding all things by the word of God's power, when the Son had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

4 Being made so much better than the angels, as the Son has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than the angels.

5 For to which of the angels did God say at any time, You are My Son, on this very day has God begotten the Son? And again, God will be a Father to the Son, and the Son shall be a Son to God?

If that is not plain enough, let's see what happens when we interpret verse three with the meanings of the pronouns flipped:

(alternate interpretation)
God being the brightness of the Son's glory, and the express image of the Son's person, and upholding all things by the word of the Son's power, when God had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

You can easily see that interpretation does not make sense; the pronoun before 'person' cannot refer to the Son and keep the context of the passage. Therefore, the person is not one of the hypostases of God--He is the only (singular) hypostasis or person of God and Jesus is the image of that one person of God in which He chose to express Himself.

The original language of the formula of the Trinity dogma contradicts the use of the term in the Bible—and they were written in the same language!

The Bible plainly says that God has one person (hypostasis) and yet the Trinitarian formulators chose to says that God has three. Then they were arrogant enough to pronounce a curse on anybody who did not accept their dogma. This anathema would include the writer of the book of Hebrews.

Do you suppose maybe all of those third century modalists who withstood the developing theories of the Trinitarian Godhead had a point after all? They were not the ones who had to turn to the wording of Neo-platonist pagans to explain their views. Their explanation was right there in the New Testament. It was the Trinitarians and the Arians who had to contradict the Bible to explain their theories of the Godhead.